Wee Mite Mention

Yesterday, on the concrete around the crabapple tree, I noticed thousands of tiny mites.  At first, I only saw the bright red adults, but, on closer inspection, I discovered that they had laid millions of tiny white eggs in the holes formed when the cement was laid.

After a little while of watching the mites come and go, I saw a newly-hatched ladybug beetle. It was wandering around eating stray individuals at a leisurely pace. It was actually kind of cute. I watched this for a bit, until the ladybug meandered into the grass.

When I got up, my arms and hands were covered in frightened mites! Now I know not to lie down next to a swarm of mites!

Article by Peter.  Photo from sxc.hu.

Words By Heart

At a recent workshop, a presenter suggested the value of spending three minutes a day memorizing short quotes or scriptures.  They encouraged us to look for those with fewer than fifteen words -- twelve words were supposed to be ideal!  Using colored markers and colorful paper, each of us made a couple of sheets that contained brief quotes we could use for our experiment.

We put the quote sheets in a binder under page protectors and flipped through them each morning during our homeschool devotional.  Sure enough, we memorized them all!

If we did a dozen a month, we would have 144 quotes in a year -- and in 14 years we would have more than 2000.  If we only do the activity this month, we still win.

Here are the quotes we learned this past month.

We all have need to repent. ~Ezra Taft Benson

I stand at the door and knock:
If any man hear my voice, and open the door,
I will come in to him. ~Revelation 3:20

The Lord works from the inside out;
the world works from the outside in.
The world would take people out of the slums.
Christ takes the slums out of people,
and then they take themselves out of the slums. ~Ezra Taft Benson.

Thou,
through thy commandments,
hast made me wiser than mine enemies. ~Psalm 119:98

Hope is an anchor to the souls of men. ~Ezra Taft Benson

Wickedness never did, never does, and never will bring us happiness. ~Ezra Taft Benson

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ~John 3:3

Repentance will be the only panacea for the ills of this world. ~Ezra Taft Benson

It is better to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent. ~Ezra Taft Benson

I give unto men weakness that they may be humble. ~Ether 12:27

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. ~Isaiah 1:18

People who live in the past don't have very much future. ~Ezra Taft Benson

Dyeing A Little

One of the goals we had for this years' education was to learn the yarn process, starting with raw wool and learning to spin, dye and create projects using techniques of knitting, crocheting, felting and weaving.  We figured that spring would be the perfect time to purchase a fleece and begin making this goal a reality.  While we wait for the fleece to arrive, we decided we could work on other aspects of the fiber process.

This week we experimented with dyeing.  We found some wool yarn being clearanced out at a local craft store and tried various techniques and dye sources, including Kool Aid, food coloring paste and Easter egg coloring pellets.  The three batches were all completed using dry wool.  Two batches used bare yarn wrapped into hanks and the third batch was done by adding two store-wound skeins to the dye bath.

This worked like magic and was nearly mess-free!  We started by adding a couple of tablespoons of vinegar to a pot containing several cups of boiling water.  Each person added a variety of colors to his batch:  Peter used red and orange dyes and Thomas used blue, green and red.  Each of the boys sprinkled cherry Kool Aid onto their hanks of wet yarn after they were in the bath, which made interesting patches of color.

Emma colored her two balls of yarn using purple and blue food coloring.  Because different elements of color absorb into the yarn at different rates (reds wick in first), the variegation of color included more pink-violet on the outside parts of the yarn and had more bluish-purple tones on the inside.  It is very pretty!

From reading and online research we have learned that wool yarn will felt if it is swished and squished too much.  When dyeing, washing or rinsing, we always added the yarn to the water and used a spoon to gently but completely submerge it.

After adding the yarn to the boiling dye bath, we turned the heat down to simmer, put the lid on, and allowed ten minutes for the color to infuse.  After ten to fifteen minutes, we turned off the heat and let the water and yarn cool.  Then we used tongs to help the yarn out of the pot and into a bath of lukewarm water with some dish soap in it.  We submerged the yarn and let it sit for a few minutes, then transferred the yarn into a couple of clear water baths.  The yarn air-dried outside overnight.

We learned that we do not particularly like the smell of wet wool!  The kids enjoyed the aroma of the Kool Aid dye, though.  Peter's vivid orange yarn was exactly his favorite color, but he remarked that it is scary to think what that food coloring might be doing to our insides.

When the colored yarn was dry, we wound it loosely into balls, appreciating the ways variations of color show up in the strands.  We can hardly wait to see how the newly colored yarn works up!  Each child has been searching the internet on a quest for simple crochet projects that will highlight the colors we created.

Moon Over Manifest

 Moon Over Manifest, written by Clare Vanderpool, is a fun book full of mystery and adventure.

Armed with an old broken compass, a dress, some overalls, and an old newspaper clipping, 12-year-old Abilene Tucker gets sent away to live with an old man in the town her father grew up in. 

Abilene Tucker is determined to learn more about her father's childhood and the skeletons in his closet.  She discovers a cigar box full of mementos and a letter belonging to a couple of boys named Jinx and Ned. Included in the box is a letter mentioning a spy called the Rattler.

Abilene and her friends, Ruthanne and Lettie, spend their summer looking for the Rattler and getting to know Jinx and Ned through Miss Sadie, a fortune-teller.

Abilene soon gets discouraged. She can't find any influence her father, Gideon, had on the old Kansas town!  She also isn't quite sure that Gideon really will come get her at the end of the summer.

However, Abilene learns many lessons:  when people come together, they can accomplish much, and, "the lines between truth and myth are not what they seem."  She also learns that nobody is a true universal: "Maybe there were just people.  People who were tired and hurt and lonely and kind in their own way and in their own time."

I really enjoyed this book.  It was sweet, and it taught good lessons.  I would recommend Moon Over Manifest to anyone and for any age group.

Written by Emma, who finished the book today and compared it to To Kill a Mockingbird and Tom Sawyer.

The Great Turkey Walk

We are enjoying Kathleen Karr's book, The Great Turkey Walk.  Written in colloquial style, this novel is a great read-aloud.  Thomas and I began reading Friday, to pass the time while Emma and Peter were working in the temple; the others were drawn into the story when they joined us.  Dad came in a couple of days later, as we neared the conclusion, and decided he wanted to read it himself.  He has been sharing the book with the two older girls.  While there are a handful of places where a reader might choose to edit a word, the book has plenty of adventure and gentle character lessons for boys and girls of multiple age groups.  It shows the practical value of school skills and also has some clever twists that help teach irony in its many forms.  The laugh-out-loud appeal for this book is high.

Like the unlikely hero of Holes, 15-year-old "Simple" Simon Green begins as an underdog with little but his cheerfulness going for him.  The story opens on the last day of school in 1860, when Simon's ladylike teacher "graduates" him, following his fourth attempt at third grade.  He borrows the teacher's life savings, invests in a flock of bronze turkeys and (with the hired help of the town drunk and his dog) embarks on an 800-mile journey, amidst the jeers and ill-wishes of his greedy extended family and the neighbors.  As the story progresses, Simon's unlikely party grows, overcomes obstacles and meets unexpected good- and bad-guys.  These include educated Indians, turkey rustlers, the US Cavalry, religious townsfolk, circus swindlers, swarming locusts, an escaped slave and even Simon's long-lost father.

"I think Simon must have had some good determination to walk a thousand turkeys all the way from Missouri to Denver," says Peter.  "I imagine it was hard, and it must have been disappointing when people tried to steal from him."

"It was a fun book," says Thomas.  "My favorite part was when the Indians said that everyone knows Indians are too stupid to know about boundaries.  And I also liked it when Simon caught up with the turkey rustlers the first time and told one of them he had been cheated by his partner with a double-headed coin."

"Simon's best talent was his ability to read people's motives," says Peter.  "He also had the ability to find out what people were good at and help them put their talents to good use.  Maybe this was because he worked at understanding people."

The author tells us that turkey drives really happened during the mid-1800's.  Without refrigerated train cars or trucking, taking meat on its own legs was the only way to get fresh food from one place to another.

Superstar Vocabulary

Four of the older children participated with their father in a 5K this weekend, which left everyone a bit sore.  Most of the participants have complained of stiff legs.  This morning, Thomas asked his older brother about it.

"So, how is your galactic acid doing today?"

Photo from sxc.hu.

Saint Patrick's Day On the Death Star

Thomas made this clever reminder that we all took. 




Even Darth Vader gets into the spirit of things, this year.  And nobody wants to get pinched by Darth Vader!

Exotic Pets

After a bring-home discussion from Dad's work, we watched a couple of instructive videos. 

The question was asked:  If you had to choose between having a tiger that you had hand-raised or a hand-raised chimpanzee, which would be more scary?

After some discussion, we watched the National Geographic special, Tigers of the Snow, followed by Michael Webber's award-winning documentary, The Elephant In the Living Room.  The first showed hazards faced by researchers as they try to save the endangered tigers in Asia; the second follows Ohio police officer, Tim Harrison, as he works to keep people safe from the extremely dangerous exotic pets of people in the American subculture, and Terry Brumfield, a man who struggles to keep a pair of African lions.  Both movies eliminated any desire any of us may have had to keep exotic pets -- especially big cats -- even if it may be legal to do so.

"Having dangerous pets just makes people unhappy," Peter commented. "Dangerous animals can be dangerous, either to you or to other people, and it can lead to having them be taken away."

There were some alarming episodes where deadly snakes were loose.  Some had been released and others had escaped.  Some children found a highly venomous snake in their garage and they played with it -- even rode on its back -- for several hours, before calling animal control.  Miraculously, nobody was hurt.

"The most freaky part was when he (Officer Harrison) was holding the Gaboon Viper," Thomas says.  "Another part that scares me is that an old lady in a wheelchair had a snake stuck in her walls."  The boa constrictor was loose for several weeks and nobody could get it out.

Officer Harrison bought a Puff Adder, one of the world's most venomous, at a fair for exotic animals.  It was in a flimsy, clear plastic bin, with a bit of red electrical tape holding it shut.  After a tense moment where he picked up the snake and locked it inside a more substantial container, he took it to a research lab.  "He was probably helping to make antivenin," Peter says.

We were shocked to hear how many hazardous snakes, big cats, bears and primates are kept in the homes of people in the United States.  "There are more tigers in Texas than there are in India," Peter recalls.


Photos from sxc.hu.

Pear Trees

Pears, like apples, are fruits, but the part we eat is not technically the fruit.  The "edible" part is a swollen section of flesh around the true fruit.  The pear fruit is actually a part in the center, usually discarded as the "core." 

Pears grow on hardwood trees that need sufficient amounts of seasonable cold weather to produce buds for flowering, and therefore fruit as well.  This makes it difficult to grow pears in tropical regions.  Pear trees do not grow very fast, so I have never seen a large one, and I don't know the maximum height, but I do know that they take kindly to being pruned. 

Pear tree wood makes a delicious smell when burned.  This, along with the fact that they burn for a long time, makes pear trees desirable for firewood.  Pear trees are great.  I wish we had one!



Written by Peter in November.

The Hardy Boys

The same plot always happens in the Hardy Boys.  Especially in the end, the boys always get trapped by the bad guys.  Little by little, the bad guys get slowly tricked into confessing their part in the crime.

I also can see a thing that is going to happen a mile away!  In almost every book, Joe and Frank get surprise attacked.  I can always see that coming.  In some books a rock or dud grenade or even a gas grenade is used on them!  And in almost every book, some of their friends get hurt.

I have read a lot of Hardy Boys books and I am looking for different books to read, now.




Written by Thomas, January 22.

Ways of Cheering People Up

• I can write notes.
• I like doorbell ditching.
• Asking people to do stuff with me.
• Just plain giving treats to people.
• Playing games together.
• Yard work.
• Heart-attacking people's doors or mailboxes.
• Let people use my things.
• Jokes are sometimes good things to do.
• Staying with Grandma Jensen.

Ideas by Thomas, February 18

Blue Poppy

Blue poppies are a variety of Japanese poppy.  This interesting flower has a truly ingenious way of surviving. 

Each flower has millions of tiny seeds that disperse in the wind and collect on the ground.  Poppy seeds can stay on the ground for a long time, waiting for it to be churned.  Over time, the seeds build up until, suddenly, there are hundreds of perennial poppies everywhere!  This chokes out all the rest of the plants, and also ensures that the poppies stand no chance of not being pollinated.

Upon returning from their trip to the Butchart Gardens, my parents presented me with a packet of Blue Poppy seeds.  I don't think they knew how fascinated I was with this flower.  I look forward to growing them in my garden when spring finally comes.  I shall have to remember to dead-head the flowers, or they might take over the world!

Peter wrote this in September, with later additions after he unexpectedly received seeds.

Emeralds: The Green Wonders

Emeralds are a kind of crystal made up of beryl.  They are colored by either chromium or vanadium.  Emeralds also have a naturally hexagonal shape.  This makes them refract light in a beautiful way, even in nature.

On a hardness scale, emeralds are a 7-10.  This means they are relatively easy to break, so people judge them by the bare eye, instead of a microscope, because there are often many inclusions.  If an emerald has visible inclusions, it will sometimes be treated with oil to smooth out fissures.  An oil-treated jewel would be less expensive.

Other qualities determining an emerald's value are color, cut, clarity and weight.  Color's three components are hue, saturation and tone.  The best emerald is right in the middle:  medium large, clear but not watery, dark but not black, and cut so it sparkles.

There are different hues of emerald.  Most are green, blue-green or yellow-green; but some are different.  Emeralds may even be aquamarine or red.

Red emeralds are only found in Beaver, Utah.  They are so rare that one red emerald is found per 150,000 diamonds.

I think emeralds are really cool.


Written by Peter in September.  

Information on emeralds found in Wikipedia.

The Bastables

We are finishing up with E. Nesbitt's The Treasure Seekers, a witty story about six children whose goal to "restore the fallen fortunes" of their house lead to a variety of adventures -- and mishaps that turn out well.  The story is told from the anonymous perspective of one of the children, but he repeatedly lets his identity slip, which is a delight to the hearers when they catch him.  This is an excellent resource to use to teach about irony in all its forms.

As a mother, it has been pleasant to read the book aloud; it has been even more delightful to see my children "play Bastables" together at the park.  Not only does this classic story introduce new vocabulary and spark discussion on traditions of former days, it has prompted insights on interpersonal relationships and highlighted truths about pride and innocence. 

New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve was probably the best New Year's Eve (other than the one we spent in Oregon).  The dinner was nice.  We didn't watch movies.  And I got to know some of my cousins better.

The dinner we had was delicious.  Well...most of it.  The theme was:  Bring Anything That Goes With Rice.  Our chicken was the best.  Grandma made some meatball/pineapple/sweet & sour sauce stuff.  Josh liked it and ate extra.

This year, Aunt Wendy said, "We're all big kids now:  we don't need movies to entertain ourselves!"  I thought, "Yeah!  Yay for you!"  So we had dinner, visited for awhile, played Two Lies & a Truth with the whole family, played Catch Phrase, and then played Mafia with kids eleven and older.  That was it.  Time flies when you're having fun!

This New Year's Eve I liked especially well, because I got to know some of my cousins better.  While everyone was talking after dinner, I played Would You Rather...? and Charades with Jake and Savannah.  Jake is such a tease!  I had dinner with Clarke, Dara, Eli, Grace, Josh and Abby at my table.  They are hilarious!

I really enjoyed this New Year's Eve, probably better than any other.  I got to know some of my cousins better, didn't watch movies, and had a delicious dinner.  Thanks to Aunt Wendy, everything was wonderful!


Written by Emma, January 5.

Photos from sxc.hu.  Used with permission of ven-.

Clarke Scholars

This year we are homeschooling the three youngest family members:  Emma, Peter and Thomas.  We have done some homeschooling before; each year we try to consider the needs of each person and make the best possible decision for each one -- and for the family.

In past years, we have been fortunate to find some wonderful teachers at good schools, but this year our favorite charter school cut their middle school program.  We always have a dilemma during 9th grade (the limbo year, after the charter school terminates and before high school offerings kick in); this year homeschooling started early for Emma, who is in eighth grade.  Does she miss her friends?  She does need more associations with other girls, but some of her need is met with her older sisters, who are 16 and 20, and their friends.

Why bring Peter and Thomas along?  Peter is a sixth-grader and there are offerings for him at the school, but we have noted some needs and have often felt we could help him better at home.  We removed him from his class partway through the school year, last spring.  Peter has life-science interests (particularly in botany, fish, birds and reptiles) and he loves to cook.  Right now he is making squash bread from scratch.

Thomas is a rambunctious and enthusiastic third-grader, who would probably do well wherever he went.  We kept him home this year so he would not miss out on the field trips we take!  He also has mentioned some of the friends from school that he misses, but he also has a lot of opportunities for his imaginative play.  Thomas is very diligent with assignments and he follows directions well.  He is a joy to have around.

It has been a great year, so far!  In addition to our regular studies, we have had many adventures together:  we have gone hiking and explored the formations inside a cave; we have gone camping together and were invaded by raccoons, we have been swimming and regularly had the pool to ourselves; we have repeatedly visited museums and the zoo; we have even taken a week to visit Grandma in Oregon.  Now we are publishing the essays we are writing for our assignments.

We are enjoying the journey together -- and we invite you to come along.

Photos from sxc.hu.  Used with permission.